ABSTRACT
Yes. When the illness starts, there is usually great confusion in the family. Usually this occurs over what has happened to their family member. The rest of the family may take varying viewpoints that tend to divide the family’s effort to help the person with the illness. Some want to distance themselves from the person with the illness to avoid accepting the reality of mental illness so close to themselves. When they find out there is a genetic component, they have a fear that they are going to get the illness too. Others view having this illness as a kind of moral weakness akin to having “mental leprosy”; they do not want to publicly or privately admit it is in their family. Some pretend that nothing has changed, and they refuse to acknowledge that the family member has an illness; denial is their way of coping. Others don’t want to be around to see the damage created and experience the associated pain and disappointment; maybe they believe “out of sight, out of mind.” And a heroic few dive right in to minimize the damage done during a manic episode and get the person the help they need.
